Karkat Vantas
Karkat Vantas ', also known by his Trollian handle carcinoGeneticist, is one of the trolls and is one of the main characters in ''Homestuck. His associated zodiac sign is Cancer (♋) and he has horns that are rounded instead of pointed (constantly referred to as "nubby horns" or "candy corn.") He types in gray with all caps and perfect syntax. His emotes display these nubby horns as the capital letter B, for example, a frowning face is depicted as ):B. His Trollian handle is a play on the medical term "carcinogenesis" which is the development of cancer in the body, and "carcinology," the study of crustaceans. The first part of his handle might also be related to "Karkinos", like his first name. Another plausible explanation is that his chumhandle is a combination of 'carcinogen' (a cancer-inducing substance) and 'geneticist'. In addition, both components serve as a form of foreshadowing, as he is a geneticist of sorts (being the creator of the pre-scratch and post-scratch trolls and genetically breeding cancer into Bilious Slick by underestimating the importance of the completion of its genetic sequence (thus ultimately dooming the kids' universe). Later on, Karkat tries to think of a title more befitting of him considering the apparently doomed life he created via Ectobiology. Ironically, he can't think of the obvious choice present in his trollian handle.. Etymology Karkat was a name suggested by beesmygod and Vantas was suggested by hr.morgaes. Karkat comes from "Karkata," the Sanskrit astrological equivalent of Cancer, minus one letter. Additionally, his name may be drawn from "Karkinos," a giant crab from Greek mythology who fought Hercules, also the origin of the Cancer astrological sign. This may mirror his relationship with Gamzee, since, in the myth, Hercules was known to enter great fits of rage and ended up killing his family, similar to how sober Gamzee apparently gains incredible strength and kills his friends. On the other hand, his last name, Vantas, is a prostate cancer treatment drug. Similarly, the Dutch word for cancer is "kanker", and so most Dutch citizens use "KK" as a shorthand for it. This may be a reason why Sollux has given Karkat the nickname . Also, when translated from Hindi, "Karkat" means litter or waste, which may be a reference to him being an outcast because of his blood color. Biography Karkat Vantas is introduced at the opening of Act 5, in his respiteblock. He was not given a name before his sixth Wriggling Day(his thirteenth birthday), just like John Egbert. He is initially named Bulgereek Nookstain using the inverted Daedric Alphabet, but chops the name entry box in half—much like Dave, Karkat doesn't put up with that bullshit. On his wriggling day, Karkat is messagedhttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003927 by Sollux, who tells him about Sgrub and appoints him to the Red Team . Angry that he's not the Red Team leader, Karkat messages Terezi and makes himself leader, appointing her second in command. She doesn't really care who leads, having only taken on the role because she didn't think Karkat cared about playing. Karkat begins the game with Terezi as his ass slave, ignoring Sollux when he (now having realized its devastating implications) askshttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=003986 him to abort. Instead, Karkat, out of a desire to spite Sollux, mocks him for his programming skills and then runs the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, which explodes his computer, blows a hole in the side of his hive, and kills his lusus. It's possible that this virus is the cause of a great deal of misfortune that would shortly befall the trolls, including the deaths of all of their lusii and of many of the trolls themselves. However, it's also possible that, like many other aspects of the game, these things would have happened inevitably, and that the events causing them had already been put into play by the time Karkat executed the virus. Karkat prototypes his sprite kernel with his lusus, creating Crabsprite. He enters the Medium, arriving in the Land of Pulse and Haze. He wields an alchemised sickle: Homes Smell Ya Later, in keeping with his sicklekind Strife Specibus. Laterhttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004213 he's shown using a sickle that appears similar to a regisword. His mythological role in the game is the Knight of Blood. Once Terezi, Gamzee, and Tavros have begun the game (in that order), Karkat looks for a server player for Tavros, attempting to recruithttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004061Nepeta. However, her moirail does not permit her to associate with lowbloods, and she declines. Sometime later, Karkat meets Jack Noir on LOPAH, who stabs him in a failed attempt to shut him up. Karkat continues talking, now worried about the unusual color of his mutant blood. Jack reveals that he, too, has candy red blood, and he and Karkat for a bond of sorts, becoming in cahoots http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004205 and formulating a plan together to exile the Black Queen. Jack Noir reveals a weakness of the Black Queen to the Red Team: once a frog is prototyped, vanity will make her refuse to wear her ring out of refusal to bear its face. With this information, the Red Team carries out Operation Regisurp, successfully exiling the Black Queen-- leading her to ultimately join the Felt as Snowman. To carry out this plan, Karkat needs a team member with psychic abilities, so he is forced to recruithttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004196 Vriska. Since she had just been kicked off the Blue team by Aradia, she agrees. Later, Kanaya also joins the Red Team, becoming Vriska's server player. Karkat starts distributing memos through Trollian's time-travel memo feature to try to order people around, but these memos end up hopelessly muddled by various interjections from the other trolls (and even Karkat himself in other points of the timeline). He witnesses the last moments of Sollux Captor this way, as he was gruesomely killed by the Vast Glub, a psychic shockwave emitted from Feferi's Lusus, but thinks he's joking. He becomes very distraught once he sees his friend's lifeless body, and then disgusted as Feferi kisses him. Spades Slick is the exile that communicates with Karkat. After finding his Sgrub station within the vault of the Felt's mansion at the end of the Intermission, Slick sees Karkat in his respiteblock engaged in Sgrub, standing idly next to his Kernelsprite, a Cruxite dowel, and some sylladex cards. It should be noted that the respiteblock at the end of the Intermission does not resemble his respiteblock in Hivebent, probably because it was before the trolls were further conceptualized. Karkat was the trolls' ectobiologist, referencing the fact that the sign Cancer is heavily associated with motherhood. He created all twelve of them in the meteor lab in The Veil that the trolls would later inhabit. Apparently, he was quite unsettled by all of this. In addition to creating the twelve current trolls, he created each troll's ancestor. However, he believed them to be RANDOM EXTRA WIGGLERS SERVING NO PURPOSE. Karkat also had the role of assisting Kanaya, his session's Space player, with frog breeding. However, in a rush to fight the Black King, he made her skip the final frog required for Bilious Slick's genetic sequence. In a pesterlog to Jade, Karkat speculates that, by doing so, he gave our universe cancerhttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005917, fearing that it is this missing line of genetic code that accounted for Jack Noir's actions, and led to the failure of the kids' session. Karkat apologizes for his hasty mistake, and although it is nothing but a single "sorry" it is one of the few times when Karkat ever apologizes. Interestingly, the position he put the universes in fits with his username '''carcinoGeneticist (creator of cancer). Over the Sgrub session, the majority of which is unseen, Karkat genuinely becomes the leader of the trolls, gaining at least some of their respect. After the battle with the Black King, he is the one to reach for the door leading to the Ultimate Reward, before being interrupted. Trivia * His typing color is directly in between that of Calliope (#929292, light-grey) and Caliborn (#323232, dark-grey) when they both originally used grey text. ** Karkat's text color is defined by the hex code #626262, grey; 62 is the atomic number of samarium, a volatile but durable silvery-grey metal used in various applications including permanent magnets and cancer treatment. The numbers could be a minor reference to 612. ** Karkat's blood is a mutated light red, showing a connection to Caliborn. His zodiac position alluding to lime blood shows a hidden connection to Calliope. Calliope, Karkat and Caliborn all hide their blood colors by not doing any hemotyping. ** Psychologically, Karkat is caring like Calliope, yet wrathful like Caliborn. Given his position in the zodiac, it is possible that Karkat's blood would be lime were it not for his mutation *** His text is also lime when he shoosh paps Gamzee. * Karkat's blood color is similar to products containing the artificial food coloring Erythrosine (also known as Red Dye #3 and E127), such as candied cherries. Erythrosine is under suspicion to have carcinogenic properties, and there have been multiple attempts to restrict its use in food. * Karkat's prudity and dislike of buckets may be a retroactive reference to the concept of the "Crab in the bucket", which identifies an individual in a group that is considered a constant downer. * "Cancer" can be defined as "irregular" and "mutated,". Karkat's mutation is likely a allusion to this. * According to the Homestuck 2012 Calendar, his Wriggling Day would be June 12, in Earth years. This, however, does not take into account the year-perigee conversion. ** This is obviously in mirror of John, who was born on 4/13. Karkat was born on 6/12, the troll equivalent. ** Ironically, this would make him a Gemini, not a Cancer. * Karkat likes Dane Cook. * Karkat using the strife specibus sicklekind is possibly a reference to the ruling planet of Cancer, his associated zodiac sign, the moon, which takes the form of a sickle when crescent. * He and Kankri are the only trolls whose god tiers have yet to be shown with wings. Whether the wings are very small, nonexistant, or simply hidden remains to be seen. * Karkat, along with Terezi, are one of the few post scratch trolls that inherited both their class and aspect from the same two pre-scratch trolls. The only other examples are Eridan and Gamzee. As the Knight of Blood, he inherited the Knight class from Latula and the Blood aspect from his dancestor, while Terezi inherited the exact opposite. This reflects both Kankri and Latula's unresolved feelings for each other, as well as Redglare being a secret follower of the Signless. This also reflects their own romantic tension towards each other. * Karkat is depicted as the central figure in the "King of Swords" card in the tarot card dec, along with the rest of the red team. His character has some parallels with the interpretation of the King of Swords as a person, as he serves as a problem solver, judge, and advisor for others. He can also be seen on the "Five of Wands" card with most of the pre act 6 main cast. ** The inverted meaning may be referenced in his dancestor Kankri, who refuses to listen to arguments and acts superior or cruel to others.